14
votes
The Great Southern Reef is an extensive and valuable ecosystem … that not very many people know about
Link information
This data is scraped automatically and may be incorrect.
- Title
- Who's heard of the Great Southern Reef?
- Published
- Nov 9 2017
- Word count
- 592 words
Related article here: https://www.imas.utas.edu.au/news/news-items/the-great-southern-reef-is-in-more-trouble-than-the-great-barrier-reef (sorry, not sure how to do a hyperlink on mobile!)
My sister and I were just talking today about this project where volunteer divers collect data about the health of our reefs. The loss of the great southern reef will be devastating. According to the article I’ve linked, 70% of the animals found there are found nowhere else in the world, and there’s nothing south of them for them to migrate too if the seas warm up. The Great Barrier Reef gets a lot more attention, but the great southern reef is equally, if not more, important
Yes, indeed, the loss will be devastating. I wonder if the great barrier reef animals can move into that space in time...... We're going to lose the one for sure, but I wonder if we save the other using the dying corpse of the other.
I had the same thought but it’s not just about the animal life. 70% of the oxygen in our atmosphere comes from the oceans. It doesn’t only come from reefs, but reefs are such an important part of the oceanic ecosystem that losing them will almost certainly affect life across the entire ocean. I hope there are enough cold reefs to take on all this important work!
You're right, the oxygen shortfall will impact every organism on the planet as well.
My hope is that we can sample as many of their genetic make up as possible, and move as many into aquariums as possible. Maybe within the century we can find tech that help us reverse climate change, and we can repopulate with the saved species or "re-print" banked species from some kind of gene vault
That would be a great solution but would require a level of acknowledgement of the climate crisis, funding of solutions, and cooperation between countries that we haven’t yet seen. I don’t want to sound like a total doomer! It’s just hard to see how things will change so drastically in the time we have. I’ve never hoped to be wrong more though!!